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Sumit SinghalSumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.

Social Housing in Valleca´s Eco-boulevard Madrid, Spain by Olalquiaga Arquitectos

The housing development in Vallecas is the main urban planning development in Madrid today. It is almost completely organised in a homogenous pattern of closed square blocks of 75 meters a side. The plot for the competition occupies three thirds of such a block.

In the report accompanying the project submitted to the competition we stated: No to the completely closed block Yes to an open and fractured block that allows for the search for sunlight through open spaces different sized spaces with variable heights interior and exterior perspectives that provide diverse, crossed and changing views diagonals that change with the light and allow diverse approaches and quiet spaces

The building has 163 one-bedroom apartments, two commercial spaces and parking space. There are five floors above-ground and two underground floors. The interior part of the plot has been left free of any underground construction in order to plant a great number of trees that will create a pleasant indoor ambiance.

Apartments Access points Commercial space The building is distributed in 4 blocs with a central corridor serving as access to the apartments. Instead of a uniform and monotonous corridor , probably poorly lit and ventilated, we propose, through subtraction and substitution of habitable cells its widening in some parts as well as the liberating of some habitable modules, in order to achieve greater diversity, the entrance of more natural light and views.

I do not remember very well but I think it was dawn and going to be a sunny day. We had been waiting and preparing all our belongings. We were ready We moved It seemed incredible that all our lives fit into a few simple folding cartons, but there we were, eager to get to our new neighborhood and see how it would be everything.

Once there, we started down the car a million boxes of colors, while alucinábamos the building where we would live. Each had like five boxes stacked on top of another, seemed ants! When we walked into the courtyard went crazy. We got to run like children and throw all the boxes in the air no matter who might happen.

The next thing I remember is we were already installed, eating spaghetti in our new living room, sipping a glass of wine and enjoying our new home, it was great. Then, I remember we put music, I can still hum that song and dance around the house. Until suddenly I woke up.

The installation is as all our material possessions and memories are nomadic, they can get into boxes and transported wherever we want. When we are surrounded by our things we feel more comfortable, safer at home. Moving is a cleansing. We ignore the things that are not important and we keep it really significant. The boxes are filled with illusions, new projects, of how we can start life elsewhere.

The decision to have used the cardboard box as the main element of the installation, as well as having a connotation as transport medium-symbolic materials, gives the project an intention to recycle and reuse. The box is a simple collection object that does not require any financial outlay. A decision that reassesses and facilitates creative work process in every way.